Chocolate Cake mmm

This is the best chocolate cake ever... HG of chocolate cake!!!! MMMMMMM cakey.

Nigella’s Chocolate Fudge Cake
Serves 10. Or 1 with a broken heart

For the cake:
400g plain flour
250g golden caster sugar
100g light muscovado sugar
50g best quality cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
3 eggs
142ml/small tub sour cream
1 tbsp vanilla extract
175g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
125ml corn oil
300ml chilled water

For the fudge icing:
175g dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids
250g unsalted butter, softened
275g icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter and line the bottom of two 20cm sandwich tins.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt. In another bowl or wide-necked measuring jug whisk together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla until blended.

Using a freestanding or handheld electric mixer, beat together the melted butter and corn oil until just blended (you’ll need another large bowl for this if using the hand whisk; the freestanding mixer comes with its own bowl), then beat in the water. Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix together on a slow speed. Add the egg mixture, and mix again until everything is blended and then pour into the prepared tins. And actually, you could easily do this manually; I just like my toys and find the KitchenAid a comforting presence in itself. Bake the cakes for 50-55 minutes, or until a cake-tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their tins on a wire rack for 15 minutes, and then turn the cakes out onto the rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, melt the chocolate in the microwave – 2-3 minutes on medium should do it – or in a bowl sitting over a pan of simmering water, and let cool slightly.

In another bowl, beat the butter until it's soft and creamy (again, I use the KitchenAid here) and then add the sieved icing sugar and beat again until everything's light and fluffy. I know sieving is a pain, the one job in the kitchen I really hate, but you have to do it or the icing will be unsoothingly lumpy. Then gently add the vanilla and chocolate and mix together until everything is glossy and smooth.

Sandwich the middle of the cake with about a quarter of the icing, and then ice the top and sides, too, spreading and smoothing with a rubber spatula.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

I made these for my fiance's sisters birthday :) I think they were pretty sucessfull - well they looked gorgeous anyway.

Still not happy with the chocolate base, this version adapted from Chokylit's one, I found it had way to much sugar and something not quite right about the texture. Still they were wonderful. One thing to be very, very careful of is how much you fill the cones. I filled mine up to different levels, and still most of them overflowed.

Chocolate Cupcakes

2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs

1. measure out everything but the eggs into bowl
2. beat together until just mixed, then on high for about 2 minutes
3. add eggs, beat on high speed again for 2 minutes
4. pour batter into ice cream cones, leave a lot of space between batter and the top of the cone
7. bake at 180 for about 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean

Butter Cream Icing

125g softened butter
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk

1. beat butter in small bowl until as white as possible
2. beat in sifted icing sugar and milk

Split icing and colour with cocoa and red food colouring, and leave some white. Decorate with choc hail, rainbow sprinkles, choc shavings and fondant :)

End Of Exams - Tiramisu Cupcakeys!

Click for bigger piccy

Unfortunately these look HIDEOUS in the pictures. They looked damn adorable on individual plates and I seem to have taken pics of the ugly ones haha.

Made dinner tonight to celebrate with family + fiancee end of exams. Chicken paella wiuth chozorio and bacon *drooool* and tiramisu cupcakes. I think I got in everyones good books - Just as well because the whole creation session took hours lol! Once again this is another super long reciepe, infact much longer than the lemon meringue cupcakeys, because the assembly factor of these takes SOOOO long.

To be honest the inspiration for these comes from movenpick tiramisu icecream, possibly the best icecream flavour in the world. You can see the empty carton in the background of the finished pics hehe! The marscapone cream tastes just like the icecream and I ate waaay too much of it in the baking process! But it was totally worth it ;)

Vanilla ButterCake
90g Softened Butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
2 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat oven to 160 (or 180 if you dont have a fan) and line 12 muffin cases
2. Beat all ingredients together on low speed until just combined, and then on high speed until batter changes to lighter colour.
3. Divide mixture into cases, smooth tops and bake for 15-20 minutes, turn onto wire rack to cool.
4. Make mascarpone cream & coffee mixture.

Mascarpone Cream
250g Mascarpone (this is actually a cheese, sometimes found in the cheese or sour cream section)
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon marsala ( i used port, with a similar result but I imagine marsala would be much much better)
3/4 cup / 180ml thickened cream, whipped

1. Combine mascarpone, icing sugar and marsala in bowl and fold in cream.

Coffee Mixture
2 tablespoon instant coffee granules
2/3 cup boiling water
4 tablespoons marsala (or 3 if you prefer)

1. Combine all in small bowl, cool.

Assembly
1. Remove cakes from cases. Take a cake and carefully cut horizontally into 4. I dunked each piece into the coffee mixture but you could brush it on if you wanted a less tiramisu-ey result.
2. Join the pieces with layers of mascarpone cream.
3. Spread the tops of the cakes with mascarpone cream and sprinkle with finely grated dark chocolate.
4. Refridgerate for 3 hours before serving.

Piccies (I need to refine my camera skills)

First Ever Documented Cupcakes! Lemon Meringue

This is a recipe I adapted from a womans weekly. They are by far the tastiest, most impressive and best praised cupcakes I have made to date. My family were seriously impressed and my fiancees friends seemed to love them too! Yay, its always good when things go right eh. I must say these did take alot of time, in that they are really a 3 step reciepe.

Anyway here goes:

Coconut Lemon Curd Cupcakes
125g softened butter
the finely grated rind of 1 lemon
2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup (80ml) milk
3/4 cup (60g) fine dessicated coconut
1 1/4 cups self - raising flour
Jar of Lemon curd for filling cupcakes - about 1/3 will be used


1. Preheat oven to 180/160 fan forced. (My oven is super hot so I used 150). Line 12 muffin cases.
2. Beat butter, rind, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy
3. Stir in milk and coconut then sifted flour. Spoon into cases and smooth tops off.
4. Bake cupcakes for 15 - 20 minutes until light brown
5. Cut a 2cm deep hole into the top of each muffin - fill with lemon curd, eat cake tops :)

Coconut Meringue
4 egg whites
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
1 1/3 cups (95g) finely dessicated coconut

1. Beat egg whites in a medium bowl with an eletric whisk until soft peaks form
2. Gradually add sugar beating till sugar dissolves
3. Fold in coconut.

Spoon Meringue into a piping bag (I used a paper lunchbag with the corner cut off) , pipe meringue onto top of cupcakes, starting from the outside going in a spiral to the middle.

Place cakes on oven tray and bake in hot oven (200) until meringue is lightly browned.

Enjoy. I should have piped meringue with a smaller hole in the bag, and made it prettier but it was my first experience with meringue ever! Probably would have helped if it was a bit thicker too.

Piccies